How We Got Here: https://old.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/110rtav/eye_for_an_eye/
‘The Dutch Connection’
Bad news. The late Angela Ackerman’s camera, the CF card and everything on it… gone.
Something’s been bothering me from the very start of this whole insane situation. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Here are the facts; Angela was murdered either intentionally or accidentally. Motive unknown. Police investigation, useless.
Somehow, through a random series of yellow lights and banana peels, I end up with her camera.
I’d never consider myself someone who believes in ghosts but it became pretty clear there was something going on with this camera that science couldn’t explain. It was showing images, almost burnt into the CF card of what seriously looked like Angela’s untimely demise.
I traced the camera back to a couple of scumbags who knew Angela personally. We got into a fight, they tried to take the camera back and inexplicably the camera, seemingly all on it’s own blinded them sufficiently to be run over by a car.
When I got home things got even stranger when the CF card re-wrote itself with a whole new set of images; Angela’s grave, a bloody axe, the scumbags being run over and pictures of what google tells me are tulips… one of them black.
Seeing as how the CF card so inconveniently decided to transform, I had the clever idea to print hard copies of the newest batch. I have backups of everything from the first batch in dropbox but my storage is completely full. I can’t upload any more.
I bought a printer, paper and some extra color ink. (Side Note: If whatever it is I’m doing doesn’t work out I’m going into the printer ink business because it’s a racket.) I print out copies of around a dozen key images and pin them up on the wall. Not sure what I was looking for exactly. Something out of place? It’s all out of place. Something that could point me in the right direction maybe?
The only potential landmarks were Angela’s grave, where her body was found and somewhere where one could find… tulips?
The grave and where she was found were matters of public record. The thought crossed my mind the tulips may be by her headstone but that was impossible because we’ve had the snowiest fall and winter in East coast history. Ain’t no tulips surviving that.
And to be frank I didn’t have much of a stomach to visit either place. It’s too tragic.
Which brings us to tulips. Oh my god. So much information about tulips online. The history of tulips being imported from Asia and landing in Europe and becoming one of the first great financial bubbles when the price of a Dutch tulip could buy you a house… and tulips, tulips, tulips. This research is going nowhere fast.
The problem is I can’t tell what’s meaningful from what’s not. I needed an expert. Fortunately, as it turns out there are quite a few of them. There’s even a tulip exhibit about 45 minutes away. The website featured a black tulip on the homepage. It must be a sign. Best of all admission is free for students (I’m pretty sure I have an old student ID somewhere in my mess of a closet. Our movie theater used to do half off for students pre-pandemic. Ah, the days.)
And that’s when it hit me. I was in such shock the night of the accident, when the skeeze-oids were mowed down, there are a few details I might not have processed correctly. Also, look, I have sympathy for the guys who were run over. It sucks. And the drivers are undoubtedly gonna pay a steep price emotionally.
But I didn’t lure them into the street. They were trying to rob me. And based on the fact that a freaking possessed ghost camera pretty much incapacitated them in time to get hit by a car… for all I know they’re murderers.
So what I failed to consider that night is four fold; 1) I have texts with one of the victims specifically designating the time and place we meet. 2) A whole handful of witnesses who saw me leave after the guys went out the back. 3) The driver of the car had to have seen the camera flashing. 4) The driver and passenger had to see me run off with the camera. That last point I know because I saw both of them clear as day.
This is a serious incident and it’s not going to take a Hercule Poirot to figure out I was a witness and may have crucial information.
No sooner than I have that thought is there a knock at the door. Two detectives with badges hanging on a chain around their neck and a lady who looked like a lawyer.
I took a deep breath and opened the door. That’s when it hits me; the freaking pictures are STILL ON THE WALL.
The detectives entered followed by the lawyer lady. Turns out she’s not a lawyer but an insurance investigator.
I tried to take the pictures down as quick as I could but it was way too late. The insurance lady spotted the photo of the d-bag, Drift. She pulls it down and asks if she can have it. I mean, cat’s out of the bag at this point. Why the hell not.
While the detectives asked me where I was, what I saw and what was the circumstance of my being there, I told them everything. Everything accept for Angela. I explained I was in shock, I was afraid for my life after being kicked in the gut and I panicked and ran. All of which is true.
Insurance lady spotted Angela’s beat up camera and asked if it was the one that took the photos. I said it was. She asked if she could have it for further examination. I said no way. Not happening. I’m a photographer and it’s my business (never mind the fact the camera, lens and flash were nearly destroyed).
The detectives said they could get a warrant since this was an ongoing investigation. They made it very clear if that’s the route I wanted to go, when they came back they would literally tear my apartment to shreds looking for evidence, for which I don’t have. It wasn’t even a veiled threat. It was threat-threat with a capital T.
And that’s the story about how I lost the camera, my printouts, the CF card. I still have dropbox backups of the first photos, but with the camera gone… I’m not even sure what I’m after anymore. Maybe the police will look at it and Angela will reveal herself to them instead. Let the professionals handle it.
This isn’t my responsibility. Okay that’s all for now. I’m waiting for the Dutch Tulip Connection tour to start at the Memorial Art Gallery. I don’t expect anything to come from this except maybe seeing some flowers. Flowers are nice, right?